Whether you’re running a brand-new start up or part of the HR department for an international organisation, a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion should be maintained throughout every stage of business process.The relationship between diversity & inclusion and business performance has been proven, where businesses that invest in promoting inclusion are finding that it positively affects their bottom line. But without data analytics, there is no easy way for HR departments to gather and report on this information. Investing in the correct technology can boost the performance of the whole business by allowing HR to access visual D&I analytics tools and promote further diversity across all departments.
What do we mean by diversity & inclusion?
Diversity: Often described as the ‘presence of difference’, diversity is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc. In a work context, this puts a focus on recruitment, ensuring that a variety of demographics are considered and subsequently employed) at every step of the recruitment process.
Inclusion: This part is all about embracing differences, and building an inclusive and supportive culture that celebrates employees’ individualism and encourages them to be themselves.Having a diverse workforce is no use to anyone if that workforce are unhappy or underappreciated, and that’s where inclusion comes in.
Gathering and reporting: what are the rules?
When gathering and reporting on D&I data, there are some specific requirements to be aware of. The data must be…
Self-reported and optional. Legally, you cannot make it mandatory for employees to provide their personal data, especially when it comes to sensitive topics that you might be looking to report on i.e. sexual orientation. However, companies can encourage employees to divulge information and stress the benefits for the company’s diversity effort if they do choose to.
Easily updatable. Your employees should be able to update their own information easily and from anywhere. Having an HR system like Youmanage in place is really helpful to fulfill this requirement – employees can log in online and update their details as and when they need to.
Highly protected and secured. The data itself is incredibly sensitive and should therefore be treated as such. Limited access levels should be in place to ensure that only those who have a genine business need to view sensitive employee data can access it. Your data should also be kept in a secure system that protects you from the risk of a data breach.
What insights can we gain from analysing this data?
Some of the questions you could ask when gathering and analysing your employee data:
• Is there a salary gap between men/women? Races/ethnicities?
• Is there a significant salary gap between age groups?
• Are underrepresented groups able to access the same development opportunities as others?
• Are underrepresented groups being held to different performance standards to others?
• Are we recruiting equally across race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and age?
• Are there equal opportunities for new parents, those caring for elders or others in need?
• Are promotions being offered to a wide variety of demographics and equally for underrepresented groups?
• Are inclusion programs effectively driving engagement and boosting employee wellbeing?
• Are employees feeling valued?
Using your HR analytics tool
Now you’ve decided what questions you’d like to answer with your employee data, you can begin to drill down into the analytics itself. With Youmanage, your comprehensive reporting suite allows you to create customisable reports based entirely around diversity & inclusion.
You can organise your D&I reporting suite to include various tiles with real-time data displaying salary by age and headcount by gender to name a few.
You can then drill-down into the data to view a list of all the employees in a certain category: This information will be updated automatically as soon as your employee edits their personal details in their own self-service portal.
Using your findings to drive business decisions
Once you’ve gathered these key business insights its time to turn them into actionable interventions. Now you know where you are on your diversity and inclusion journey, you can identify gaps and areas of opportunity for the organisation. Develop a strategy moving forward to improve each of these individual metrics over the next month, quarter or year, and make sure to get your whole team on board in driving this change across the business.
Your strategy should include quantifiable goals but also focus on the overall morale and wellbeing of the workforce, ensuring that everyone feels valued as an individual, as well as part of the wider team. Fostering a feeling of belonging will lead to happier, healthier employees who are better able to focus and perform to the best of their abilities.
Did you find this article useful? Youmanage is a HR software platform providing embedded guidance, compliance and automation at every step of your day-to-day HR and business activities. Take out a free 30-day trial, or book a free demo with our Support Team for more information.
